Online Business News – noupehttps://www.noupe.com
THE magazine for webworkers and site ownersFri, 24 May 2019 10:32:13 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=5.0.4https://www.noupe.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/cropped-favicon-300x300.pngOnline Business News – noupehttps://www.noupe.com
3232How Microsoft Dynamics AX is Changing the Way You Look to Manufacturing Businesseshttps://www.noupe.com/business-online/how-microsoft-dynamics-ax-is-changing-the-way-you-look-to-manufacturing-businesses.html
https://www.noupe.com/business-online/how-microsoft-dynamics-ax-is-changing-the-way-you-look-to-manufacturing-businesses.html#commentsWed, 07 Nov 2018 11:54:19 +0000https://www.noupe.com/?p=106818]]>

Digital transformation is one of the biggest change that is happening all over the world. Now, a large portion of the world is connected in the internet loop.

Information is exchanging on a large scale between people and our past generations never expected such drastic change will occur. We are living in that dream world where anything is possible with the help of technology. Digital transformation is the key thing in today’s world and the manufacturing industry is no exception.

Many leading tech companies are providing the most advanced tech solutions to various sectors to increase the overall growth of human civilization. Every day, a new technology is introduced to the world and new processes and new technologies are rolling out continuously. But dealing with the large population of the world and manufacturing the products to meeting the demands of people is quite a challenging task. Human has limited potential to carry out certain tasks.

Key Choices Around Using Dynamics AX to Manage a Manufacturing Business

The big manufacturers are under pressure to remain at the top-level productivity throughout their supply chains in the face of changing industrial landscape. Delivering best services and improving efficiency is a top priority for many manufacturing businesses, but if manufacturers are to build an organization which can truly tackle such huge demand, they need to have a vigorous business management solution at their foundation.

The Microsoft Dynamics suite has long been a favorite of manufacturing organizations. Microsoft Dynamics AX has come a long way from a being a by-product of collaboration between IBM company. The journey of this company is really impressive. In the current time, Dynamics AX has grown to become one of the most widely used ERP systems across the globe and supporting numerous small and large companies operate efficiently and match the changing demands of a dynamic market.

What are the key reasons you should choose Microsoft Dynamics AX for your manufacturing business?

Manufacturing is mainly a very process-heavy industry, but now more than ever manufacturers need to work to enhance their customers experience to be able to excel. Microsoft Dynamics AX is an integrated, adaptable business management solution in the Microsoft Dynamics line that manages the customer relationship and supply chain processes. By the help of this software tool, your people can work efficiently and make important decisions and confidence.it can help you run your business across locations and countries by consolidating and standardizing processes, provides visibility across your organization.

Why you should choose this amazing business manufacturing software tool?

This is the best software to help people work fast and smart and provides many benefits describes as follows:

Mainly focus on business rather than on learning new applications with a solution that looks and feels like familiar Microsoft user experience.

Give people access to real-time key performance indicators, and scorecard.

Enable key decision-makers to work with critical information using PerformancePoint Server without logging into Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Expand decision making with business intelligence and reporting tools that assist people to analyze data through dashboard KPIs

Build strong connections with employees, customers, and partners using integrated and collaborative tools.

Expand easily across borders with country-specific functionality and based on consumer requirements, including capabilities for multiple languages and currencies.

Manage and monitor the overall performance across your organization with sophisticated reporting and analysis tools.

Save the time and effort with the workflows that enforce and enhance control based on specific risk.

Reduce the cost and uncertainty of protecting corporate compliance data by taking advantage of the power Microsoft Dynamics AX and other Microsoft products in your IT infrastructure.

The whole point of improving processes, streamlining workflows and boosting the loyalty of the customer is, of course, to make your business more profitable. By providing business manufacturers with the tools and intelligence to make their services better, faster and more customer-centric. So this software fulfills all these aspirations that will result in higher profits and a healthier future.

Microsoft Dynamics AX Development is an intuitive, cloud-hosted intelligent solution which offers users a single common platform through which to manage their entire operations, making collaborations easier, process faster, and reporting more pragmatic. Through digitization with Dynamics AX, manufacturers can find automated digital solutions to practical issues, such as inventory monitoring, quality control, and equipment maintenance.

Ever since we started Noupe in 2009, we’ve been on a mission to be an authority on all things design. Whether it was providing tips on CSS, JavaScript, UI/UX, vector editing, typography, or WordPress — we’ve been here to provide helpful advice and reviews. We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished and all the designers we’ve helped.

But today marks the next evolution of Noupe. We’re excited to announce that Noupe has been fully acquired by JotForm!

Why is JotForm acquiring Noupe?

The reasoning was simple. As a company, JotForm loves design. Its users include designers and design aficionados, and JotForm’s team is full of talented developers and designers who regularly read Noupe. But what really drove this acquisition is that JotForm loves writing about design.

The JotForm Blog is also a resource for thousands of designers and developers looking for tips and trade secrets, just like Noupe. Now that Noupe is part of the JotForm family, it’ll get exposure to even more readers than ever before. JotForm has nearly 4 million users worldwide. It’s a brand that has helped countless companies create better designs — something that made them a perfect fit to carry the Noupe torch.

What to Expect

As a devoted Noupe reader, you won’t miss a thing. JotForm’s team of writers will continue to write thoughtful, researched articles on creating great design. The major difference is that you’ll have exposure to even more articles and resources.

The former Noupe team will now focus on other projects, such as the German design magazine Dr. Web, which has been the initial spark setting fire to Smashing Magazine and Noupe, both of which wouldn’t even exist without the good ole Doctor. Wave Goodbye, say Hello!

About JotForm

JotForm was founded in 2006 as the first WYSIWYG online form building tool. Since then, it’s grown to be the leading online form creation software, with millions of users around the world and over 100 employees. You can find JotForm all over the web, powering application forms, registration forms, website contact forms, order forms, feedback forms, and more. If you aren’t a JotForm user yourself, chances are you’ve filled out someone else’s JotForm-powered form and never even realized it.

In addition to JotForm Blog, you can learn more about JotForm by reading advice and stories from their CEO, Aytekin Tank, through his articles in Entrepreneur and Medium.

If you want to be successful, many experts and life-hackers say you should wake up at 6 am, take a cold shower, exercise, meditate, journal and brainstorm, review and set goals, read news and industry sites, consume inspiring content, eat a protein-rich breakfast

Whew. That’s a lot to accomplish before 8 am.

I’m not sure when the dogma of morning routines began to spread, but suddenly, these mile-long checklists are everywhere?—?especially in the startup world.

Routines can be great, but I think there’s a misplaced emphasis on morning.

Everyone has different peak hours. If you want to enhance your productivity, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a morning person or a night owl, or if you go for a run at 6 am or 6 pm.

With that many smartphones around, you definitely need an app. This is what many inexperienced people, also known as clients, think. However, even some experts recommend using native apps for redesigns, rather than a website. This article explains why that’s wrong.

Let’s first define the terms. When speaking of websites and apps, we mean a presence accessible on the web, and the native app as we know it from the world’s app stores. A web app, in that sense, would be a website with expanded functionalities.

People Spend More and More Time on Their Mobile Devices

There are tons of studies on the topic of native app usage, supporting different points of view. Oftentimes, this only depends on how we read the results. Let’s take a look at the most striking examples.

In the current US Mobile App Report for 2017, the statistics company Comscore released numbers on the time users spend on their mobile devies. It turns out that mobile users spend 87 percent of their time in apps, and only 13 percent using mobile browsers on the web. This number has remained consistent for years, though it has been declining for mobile browsers over the past two years.

Well, this is a very obvious statement, is what your client may think. I need an app for my business. After all, this gives me a chance of 87:13 of me being noticed on mobile. This assumption is wrong.

If we look at the top 10 apps, it becomes obvious that this is not a rivalry between the open web and the app cosmos. The users simply use their devices differently.

Here, it makes sense to take the Facebook app out of consideration, as it is nothing but an appified form of web usage. Facebook is by far the biggest digital presence of the planet. This can’t be considered a reference. The same goes for YouTube. Here, using the mobile site comes with no advantages. The app accesses the same content.

Noteworthy: eight of the ten most used apps either belong to Facebook or Google. Does your client have a chance to compete? The statistics are meant to be read like this, by the way: 81 percent of smartphone users use the Facebook app, and so forth.

Let’s use eMarketer to look at the usage areas of mobile app users. Most of them are mostly irrelevant on the stationary computer. The main reason for this being the very specific orientation of mobile apps towards mobile devices. Of course, I’d rather play a little game on my smartphone. After all, it has sensors to make playing more interesting, and I have it on me at all times. Of course, I’d rather use productivity apps like task managers, calendars, and so on on my smartphone, as they’re always accessible that way. Small utilities have only created their share via the availability of smartphones.

The gaming section has a solid share of 14,3 percent. However, they stand no chance against social networks and their share of 23,9 percent. Mobile video apps have a share of 18,7 percent. The number wasn’t on previous lists. Musically and Co have created a real boom. All of these application cases share the fact that they are destined for mobile devices.

To wrap this up, let’s take a look at a screenshot of today’s top apps in the Google Play Store:

No app version of a website in sight. (Screenshot. D. Petereit)

What did you notice for both studies above, as well as the screenshot? Right, there is no large brand with an app that would cover the classic tasks of the existing website.

Learning #01:

Apps are being used very selectively, and their application purpose has to be suitable for mobile usage. Pure information procurement on mobile devices only takes place in the form of the thirteen percent of mobile browser usage. Thus, it’s not worth it to create an app for that sole purpose. You’ll understand this if you ask yourself if you’ve ever searched for a restaurant, hairdresser, or IT service provider on the app store. Nope, you haven’t.

The Regular Average App Doesn’t Exist Anymore

In 2014, the average smartphone user installed 8.8 apps a month. At that point in time, this number had barely changed in three years. More recent numbers from 2017 show that this value has dropped significantly. Only 49 percent of the surveyed users still install apps; 32 percent install between one and three apps a month.

Things get even worse if we take a look at Localystics, as they found out that the average Android app loses more than 71 percent of their active users within the first 90 days of usage. After only thirty days, the value is already at 57 percent. Here, you also have to consider the fact that this number is an average across all apps. Here, games improve the average. If we left them out, the loss rate would sit around 90 percent.

In the first quarter of 2018, the available number of apps was around 2 million for iOS alone. This number has remained rather consistent since 2016. In the Google Play Store, we even find 3.8 million apps at the same time. This number has almost doubled since 2016.

There’s only one logical conclusion to draw from these numbers. Don’t offer an app to your clients, unless they are some of the few that fit into the profile described above.

Let’s take Snapchat as an example. Here, the app is the product. The website only points towards the download of the app. Of course, this business needs an app, as it pretty much is the app. But this won’t work for the average customer.

Learning #02

Mobile internet usage is still rising, though not as rapidly as it did in the first ten smartphone years. App usage, on the other hand, is declining. Thus, I don’t recommend suggesting an app to clients. In almost any case, a responsive website as a progressive web app is more likely to be the means of choice.

Advantages of Responsive Websites in Comparison to Native Apps

This may seem superficial, but of course, there are a few solid advantages responsive websites have over native apps. These are only actual advantages if you’ve come to the conclusion that a native app is not the right choice for the client.

Before we get to the advantages, we want to note that the standardization of web technologies has lead to the irrelevance of former disadvantages web apps had in comparison to native apps, including the access to device functions, above all else. Read our articles on PWA here and here, and convince yourself.

Now, let’s get to the advantages a web app has over native mobile apps:

The Costs Are Much Lower

The costs of a responsive website are much lower than the costs of an app. At least, this is the case if you have certain aesthetic aspirations regarding the app, and aren’t satisfied with the next best building kit system.

I have created an app version for an existing website’s sensible functions, and it took about three times the development time for far less functionality. This was hard to explain to the client.

You Don’t Need to Abide By App Store Rules

Native apps have to be handed in to be checked, and sometimes, they only arrive in the app store after a few days, from where they can make their way onto the consumer’s device. Each update has to undergo this process again. It is necessary to create and maintain app store developer accounts. A responsive website can simply be put online.

This Makes for Higher, Basically Immediate, Availability

The last sentence says it all. We can just put responsive websites online, and they become accessible right away. They don’t need to be installed. Nonetheless, it is possible to prepare our responsive website for pseudo-installation. The user can create an icon on the home screen which allows him to access the website at any time. With PWA, we have even more extensive options.

The Visibility in the Open Web is Higher Than in the App Store as Well

A responsive website can be designed with all the SEO tricks at our disposal, making it end up high in the search results. With an app, the only way to do so is to set up a website promoting the download, following the same SEO rules. Who’d think of this as a sensible step? Especially since this visibility wouldn’t even include the content of the app. Another point for the responsive website.

Then: Active Monetization of Web Content via Flattr

Flattr. That was a nice idea, back then. Content providers were able to integrate so-called Flattr buttons in their pages, allowing users to donate small amounts of money to the respective provider by clicking the button.

This was meant to be a simple solution for the problem of monetizing complex content, solely relying on the sheer number of participating users. Ads could’ve become redundant, had that approach established itself.

In fact, especially in Germany, there was a short period of time that one could call hype for the project. In the long run, the interest of the providers, as well as the potential donators died back down quickly.

Flattr 2.0: Landing Page

Providers earned next to nothing, users didn’t find enough targets to Flattr, meaning donating to content providers. Overall, the system suffered from a lack of participants on both sides, resulting in too little money in circulation.

Now: New Conceptional Approach Relies on Automation by Algorithm

2017 is the year in which Flattr wants to change track. The service has reinvented itself completely and didn’t leave anything untouched.

The only thing that remains is the underlying concept. Web users should have an easy way of rewarding content providers. The realization has changed radically, though.

Instead of buttons, their integration, and the deliberate clicking on them, the new Flattr 2.0 is entirely based on algorithms. It’s not the content provider who integrates buttons on all of their contents, but rather the user who installs a Chrome extension, or a Firefox add-on in their desktop browser. Using Flattr on mobile is not possible (yet).

Whether You Become a Hero for Flattring is Debatable. (Graphic: Flattr)

Connected to a Flattr user account, which deducts an amount selected by the user every thirty days, via credit card, the browser extension saves every visited URL, as well as further parameters, including the amount of time spent, and the number of pages visited.

On the recipient’s side, a corresponding Flattr account is required. The content provider signs up his domains and social profiles (Twitter and YouTube) at Flattr, and that’s it. The recipient doesn’t need to do anything else.

Now, when the web user accesses websites signed up with Flattr during surfing, these pages are included in the distribution of the monthly budget. Regarding that, Flattr has set its algorithm to consider the time spent on a single page, as well as the roaming through a website over a connected set of multiple pages, with less time spent on each one when it comes to paying the providers.

Here, the web user has full control over the algorithm at all times; at least in hindsight. Each Flattr process is displayed in the account’s backend. If, while viewing a Flattr, the user realizes that content that he does not want to support is included, he can remove it with a click. Until the end of the payout period, this is possible at any time. Naturally, it is not possible after that. Thus, it is recommended to check your Flattr account from time to time, to manually adjust the distribution of the money.

The browser extension works locally for the most part. This means it doesn’t send all the data it collects to Flattr servers. The operators of the service also promise to protect the privacy regarding the received data, and to not use it for any purposes other than the Flattr deduction, especially not for the distribution to third parties.

If the user finds content from a provider that has not signed up with Flattr, that content is still considered for distribution. This might prove that a full online feedback between local tracking and server-sided deduction really doesn’t exist. At the end of the payout period, the server weeds out the content without a linked Flattr account. This makes sure that the full subscription amount is actually paid out to participating content providers.

Flattr takes a share of 7.5 percent of the revenue for providing the service. The used payment provider claims another nine percent. For example, an amount of 20 Euro leaves 16.70 Euro for distribution.

Internationalization By Switching to Dollar

Flattr always used the currency Euro, but this will change with version 2. Flattr switches to USD. This certainly is the right step towards a faster globalization of the offer. Aside from the respective native currency, the typical web user most likely knows the conversion rate to Dollar. This makes the financial input easy to assess for anyone.

As mentioned before, Flattr distributes the subscription amounts exclusively to content providers signed up with Flattr. Thus, it is a good thing that Flattr also gets information on URLs with operators that have not signed up. Every cold caller would be panting for this kind of data:

“Look, provider X, last month, you could’ve made this much money off Flattr users, had you signed up your content. Let me show you the statistics.”

Given a widespread success, there is no easier argument for the expansion of the provider network.

Another thing that is interesting for content providers is the fact that Flattr always starts the deduction period thirty days after subscription, instead of the end of each month. Thus, a potentially consistent flow of income is possible, although you need to keep in mind that each payout comes with a fee of 3 USD. The bottom limit for a payout is set to 10 USD.

Flattr’s Future is in the Consumers’ Hands

The future of the new Flattr is mostly in the hands of the web users, the consumers. If there are enough people willing to have their surf sessions tracked by Flattr browser extensions, the number of participating providers will increase over time. The above-mentioned statistics will also be a factor regarding that.

Will There be Support? (Graphic: Flattr)

Since Flattr works with tracking methods, success depends on the ability to eliminate the existing data protection concerns. Overall, this shouldn’t be too big of a deal. After all, the majority of users already hands out way too much information to third-party servers, than one would usually agree with. Facebook’s entire business model is based on that. Certain target groups won’t be as easy to reach.

For the content provider, Flattr is just another way to make some money. As Flattr doesn’t require any exclusivity or specifies technological demands, there is little to no reason not to sign up your content.

Marketers have to deal with a vast variety of different ad formats in social media. This problem potentiates itself, as the social media environment is rather expanding than shrinking. Thus, a service like the Ad Jelly Size Guide, that knows all the ad formats of all relevant social networks, becomes almost indispensable.

The Ad Jelly Size Guide in Action. (Screenshot: Noupe)

The Ad Jelly Size Guide informs you about all ad formats on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, YouTube, Google+, Tumblr, and Pinterest, as well as the different offers over at Adwords.

If you have to work with most of these services on a regular basis, you’ll be happy that the size guide gives you PSD and Sketch templates, allowing you to create the according format in no time.

True power users don’t download templates individually for each format, but get one of the predefined packages which contain all formats for one network, respectively. If you want to, you can even get a package that contains all templates for all social networks. It doesn’t get faster than this.

The Ad Jelly Size Guide sports an unusual design. In a freehand sketch look, that I think is quite appealing, the size guide presents the individual formats in a clear grid. On the left, you select the network, whereupon a centered tab navigation grants you access to the different ad specifications. You can’t get lost here.

Added Value for Facebook Advertisers

Specifically for Facebook, the size guide comes with the tool “Image Grid Checker”. The Facebook guidelines say, that an image that you want to use for advertising purposes, is only allowed to contain a maximum of 20 percent of text. The checker examines that exact value, avoiding the risk of your next campaign being declined.

Conclusion: Must-have for Marketers

As Ad Jelly promises to keep the specifications up to date, the size guide is a must-have bookmark for everyone working in social media and digital marketing in general.

]]>How to Get The Most Out of a New Website Launch Announcementhttps://www.noupe.com/business-online/new-website-launch-announcement-98528.html
https://www.noupe.com/business-online/new-website-launch-announcement-98528.html#commentsFri, 19 Aug 2016 08:00:08 +0000http://www.noupe.com/?p=98528]]>

The months of sweat and tears have passed and the stakeholders have finally signed off. Your new website design is about to go live – but how do you announce a new website launch? How do you get people to care about a new website? How do you get the most traffic and conversion you can out of a new website launch?

1. Send out a Press Release

First of all, target local business publications and anyone who you feel would be interested in the new site. Then move on to utilizing the press release process as a link-building exercise. If you write up a professional press release and use a resource like Press Release Jet to get the press release spread far and wide for the purpose of gaining links back to the site.

Unless you’re a very big company, serious news sources won’t make a big deal out of your launch but it doesn’t mean you can’t use the opportunity to get on some cool sites and possibly promote it there. Press Release Jet and other services distribute your press release to the press release section of local news stations websites around the company so you can even promote those articles once they get published – and they do get published on very credible sites that can make you and your company look good. Just make sure your press release takes an angle that would be interesting to your prime demographic and isn’t just navel-gazing.

2. Schedule a couple posts for every social media account you have

Use the post scheduling tool Buffer or Hootsuite to set up well-written posts on all your social accounts, but make sure you have them set for the hard launch, not the soft launch. Let’s be real, the first day any website launches there are usually some tweaks that need to be made and things that are getting squared away. I generally suggest waiting a week to really make the big announcement. But at that point, announce it 2 or 3 times (especially on high volume platforms like Twitter), and include an image of your website in all its glory or even a gif of someone scrolling through the site showing it’s best features. Here’s an example of clothing store Maurice’s showcasing their new WordPress blog developed by Minneapolis Web Design with a gif in a tweet.

3. Emphasize new features and promote a tweet and Facebook post.

If there are new features that your customers or clients will love, take a little video of someone using them and showing the feature in action and promote it in a Facebook post or tweet. Not everyone is going to intuitively know to go check every nook and cranny of your site and find why it’s so cool, so you might need to give a little social media marketing nudge or two to let them know you’re trying to serve them better. Promoted posts and tweets are a great way to get the information about new features out there more quickly.

4. Create a blog post about what’s changed and any refocusing you’ve done on the site.

This one is a no-brainer. You just spent a ton of time working on a site to better showcase your products or services and now it’s time to share why the new site is better. It’s also a good idea to do a write-up because people really do search “Company Name Website Redesign” in search engines hoping to find out what’s been changed and why. In a recent re-launch people were landing on the post from 2 years before when the last iteration was launched, so we did a write-up really quickly and redirected the traffic that was coming to the old post to the new post – as it was clear that’s what they were looking for.

E-mail is still one of the most visible digital marketing tactics we have in our arsenal so don’t underestimate its power.

According to Mailmunch, if you have 2,000 people in your e-mail list, 2,000 people who like your page on Facebook and 2,000 people who follow you on Twitter – on average:

435 people will see your email and open it

120 of the people who like your Facebook page will see your post

40 of the people who follow you on Twitter will see your tweet

Yes the mediums are different, but these are compelling reasons to dip into your e-mail list on a website launch.

6. Create a game around a hidden easter egg on the new site.

You can drop the word “serendipity” on the website somewhere and give a $25 gift card to anyone who finds it and sends you a screenshot. You could really hide anything you’d like, but the idea is to incentivize finding it and encourage people to explore the site your team worked hard on.

Don’t worry your easter doesn’t have to be as dope as Kanye West’s easter egg in the code of his website:

7. Edit your email signature and add “Check out our new website!”, linking to the new site.

Speaking of the effectiveness of e-mail, try the drip method by adding the announcement to your e-mail footer and every routine e-mail you send helps spread awareness. You might not feel comfortable sending every contact the announcement normally, but subtly in your email signature can let them know without being pushy.

8. Recognize that “new” is relative, and keep playing it up for a month or so.

You may be tired of your new website before it even launches (because it was a lot of work to create content for, coordinate people to complete, etc) but other people haven’t seen it yet. So don’t spend one day letting everyone know it’s launched and then give up. A couple posts on each social network, an e-mail, a press release, a blog post, and some promoted posts or ads around the launch can linger for at least a couple weeks to make sure the news of the launch is spread far and wide. At most, you can spend a month tactfully sharing the new website launch and new features on it – try to take a new angle each time you do, and people will be less likely to get tired of it.

Alignable have published the reports of their recently SMB Trust Index Survey, and WordPress tops the list.

Among 25 of the most trusted brands or companies by small to medium business owners, WordPress has been enlisted as the first choice. To quote:

For small business owners, WordPress is a well-trusted company, Yelp is a brand in trouble, and Facebook is on a downward path.

The survey sample included over 6000 small business owners across North America. Interestingly enough, WordPress has been ranked above the likes of Google, Shopify and GoDaddy. Here is how the data has been assessed and analyzed:

Data represents running, cumulative report of SMB sentiment of vendors and providers from more than 6,000 ratings. Relative position changes from this quarter to the prior quarter were generated from the 25% net new ratings added to the database in the quarter. Alignable members rated these brands on a sliding scale from 0-10. NPS values calculated by subtracting percentage of detractors (brands rated 0-6) from percentage of promoters (brands rated 9-10).

Of course, the above ranking views WordPress as a “company”, which it apparently is not. The WordPress community views itself as anything but a company, so the term surely is not the best fit for describing WordPress. However, the fact that WordPress is ranked one among a list of 25 most trusted brands by SMBs is what is important — WordPress’ dominance does not seem to be fading anytime soon.

It is official: Yahoo, amidst all of its recent struggles and issues, is now up for sale. The company has recently formed a review committee of “independent directors”, to find “strategic alternatives”, or in other words, brought bankers and lawyers on board to find viable buyers of Yahoo.

Yahoo has not had a great time of late, and it has been cutting down on its expenditures: Flickr’s role has been diminished, plus many of its content verticals too have been chopped down or abandoned altogether. Furthermore, it has cut down 15% of its workforce recently, and now, it is up for sale.

Of course, Yahoo is still a powerful enough web entity, especially in terms of its curated homepage content and email services. Furthermore, Yahoo owns some decent platforms on the internet, including Tumblr. Yahoo also owns a great share in Chinese eCommerce giant Alibaba — purchasing Yahoo can actually open up an opportunity for investors to invest by proxy in an offshore eCommerce business.

This recent announcement by Yahoo can evoke mixed reaction from the business world. On one hand, having gone public with its intentions can actually save Yahoo, with newer investors coming on board (possibly). On the other hand, this might invoke a slightly adverse reaction as well, with Yahoo’s credibility taking a dip as its market share continues to fall. Of course, the outcome remains to be seen.

Until any noteworthy proceeds are made on the acquisition front, Yahoo intends to function as normal, and carry on with its ongoing ventures.

What do you think of this development? Will Yahoo be able to dominate the internet once again? Share your views in the comments below!

Outlook has recently undergone a big revamp, and has rolled out a whole new set of features for its web version. Keeping the growing market share of GMail in mind, Outlook’s new look seems to be an attempt to outsmart the competition.

Among other things, Outlook now has a whole new design, plus a new set of emojis. You can “like” emails, and even tag people right within the email body.

Outlook also comes with mediocre image-editing capabilities within your inbox — possibly as a reply to Google’s Drive integration in GMail. Plus, you also have Giphy integration in Outlook, so you can share and send GIFs with ease.

An interesting feature that Outlook has added to email now is the introduction of social networking concepts in your inbox. You can “like” conversations as if they were Facebook posts — simply like the email in question, and you needn’t respond to it either. Similarly, you can use the @ sign to tag people in your email body — possibly to draw their attention towards a specific point that you are making.

Outlook has already had integration with other Microsoft products, such as Office Online and Skype. Thus, you can still have document editing and video chatting facilities in Outlook, and this latest update focuses more on the email-centric aspect of things.

Also, Outlook now has a new set of third-party addons, such as PayPal, Yelp, Uber and Wunderlist that you can incorporate in your workflow. Learn more about the new Outlook updates on this page.

What do you think of these updates? Will you be using Outlook anytime soon, or you’d prefer sticking with GMail? Share your views in the comments below.

This is useful. Adsvise is a free-to-use website, that makes the content specifications of the different services out there available as clear and concise as possible. You are not sure which formats, measurements, and sizes you can use for an HTML5 ad on Google Adwords? Ask Adsvise.

Designers need to make money off of something as well, and thus, who could blame them for creating advertisements? The advertisement industry is still one of the better payers. In contrast to the owner of your local pizza place, the ad customer is fully aware of the design’s evanescence. To put it in other words: You don’t need to discuss about the appearance for hours. The owner of Luigi’s Pizza Palazzo has a very different point of view on that.

In most cases, the difficulty in designing ads isn’t based on the creative or communicative aspect. The bigger problem is the heterogeneity of possible target platforms.

Adsvise: What’s Up With Adwords, Facebook and Co.

The service Adsvise, which launched just a few days ago, specifically deals with this issue. Adsvise informs the user about the specifications of Google Adwords, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Google+, and LinkedIn in a very clear way. The amount of included service specifications is supposedly going to increase continuously. The most important target platforms, however, are already included, above all others Google Adwords and Facebook.

You’ll receive a composition of the possible types of ads for each platform. The format is then presented once again, in a compact manner, as you can see in the following image:

Besides a display of the appearance in their respective format, you’ll find information on the media format, the measurements in pixels, the file formats, the file weight, and important additional information, for example, that a ZIP file, including all remaining content, needs to be created for the Adwords ads.

PSD templates are provided for many of the listed ad sizes, and allow you to quickly create compatible results.

Adsvise Also Offers Information on the Header and Profile Picture Conventions

Besides advertisement formats, Adsvise informs about generally useful specifications, such as the measurements of profile and header images for Facebook and other social media.

For every overview, there is a comment feature available, which can be used to communicate with the team and ask questions. You will not wait for replies in vain.

If you want to be instantly notified about new and/or altered specifications, you can subscribe to the Adsvise newsletter, or follow the owner’s social profiles on Facebbok, Twitter, LinkedIn or Pinterest.

By the way: In this article, we’ve taken a look at HTML5 as a base for advertisements.

Google has decided to retire Picasa, its flagship photo sharing service, and will now focus solely on Google Photos.

For quite many years, Google had been promoting Picasa as a photo and video sharing service, similar to Yahoo’s Flickr, but less popular and less feature-packed. Of late, Google had launched Google Photos, and with seamless integration for Photos on Google+ and Android devices, Picasa was falling out of favor.

With effect from later this year (May 01, 2016), all existing Picasa users can now log in to Google Photos and access their Picasa content therein, and even make changes to the albums. However, you can still browse and view your Picasa Web Albums, though all further edits and changes will have to be done via Google Photos.

And if you have been using the Picasa Desktop application, you can continue using it, but after March 15, it will no longer be supported, nor updated. Google Photos has its own desktop uploader, so you can make the switch.

If you have used the Picasa API in your web projects and websites, now is the perfect time to make the transition towards Google Photos or another similar service. The API will continue to function as normal, but certain functions will soon be retired. More details here.

As such, Picasa now joins the long list of Google products that have been retired or dropped, such as Orkut and iGoogle. None of the changes are happening this very month, so you can take your time and plan your transition to a service of your choice.

What do you think of this move by Google? Share your views in the comments below!

Sometime back, Google had announced that it will no longer allow users to upload ads built in Flash to AdWords. Carrying on with that policy, Google has now announced that starting 2017, it will stop running Flash ads altogether.

Starting June 30th, 2016, display ads built in Flash can no longer be uploaded into AdWords and DoubleClick Digital Marketing.

Starting January 2nd, 2017, display ads in the Flash format can no longer run on the Google Display Network or through DoubleClick.

This news is yet another step towards the demise of Adobe Flash, with the internet clearly steering away from Flash content now. In fact, Adobe has even renamed Flash Professional as Animate CC, and is focusing more on HTML5 content as opposed to Flash.

Considering the fact that Flash is a frequent target for security exploits on the internet, its falling out of favor does not come as a surprise to anyone. Google has long offered HTML5 ad creation tools, and the default video player on popular services such as YouTube too has been using HTML5 since 2015.

However, many advertisers have persisted with Flash, and a good part of the advertising industry still uses Flash to serve display ads. Now that Google has decided to put an end to this practice, we can expect results soon enough — with its dominant share of the web browser and internet search market, Google is probably the best company that is currently capable of influencing advertiser behavior on the internet.

As such, starting 2017, display ads in Flash will no longer be supported by Google. Note that, however, video ads built in Flash will continue to be supported for the time-being.

If you are using Flash ads, you can learn more about transitioning to HTML5 ads here.

Opera web browser has recently got a major update, and the new version, Opera 35, comes with several features and bug fixes, as well as enhancements.

For web designers and developers who work across multiple tabs, the newest version, Opera 35, lets you easily mute tabs. Thus, when you open multiple tabs, and if one of them starts playing that odd video, you need not worry about locating that tab and closing it; Opera 35 will handle it for you. Plus, if you wish to unmute any one specific tab or a set of tabs, and mute the rest, you can simply right-click on that particular tab and unmute it.

Plus, the download interface too has been revised and updated, and it now shows you all your downloaded files such as documents, videos and music, in a streamlined fashion.

Opera 35 also comes with a good deal of customization tweaks, and you can now change themes and other appearance options directly from the settings panel. You can decide the startup behavior of your browser, as well as customize the appearance of the bookmarks bar, cookies menu, and downloads interface individually.

The latest version of Opera builds up on the developments of the previous year. Back in 2015, Opera added video compression for Android devices, as well as features such as Opera Max that can reduce your data usage when viewing videos or streaming music online via mobile devices. Opera 35 for desktop further focuses on a revamped interface and distraction-free web browsing experience.

Opera is not as popular as the likes of Chrome or Firefox, but amongst mobile users, it has a decent user base. Plus, Opera on desktop is fully cross-platform, and works well with most major operating systems, including Linux. As such, it is a worthy contender in the world of web browsers, though Opera 35, with all its bells and whistles, still does not seem like a viable replacement for Chrome or Firefox anytime soon.